Broadland-GY step up pursuit of title

15:39 07 March 2013

Andy Riches jnr being honoured for his services to the club by Norfolk RFC

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Broadland – GY 55 Norwich Union 0

Broadland – GY continued their unbeaten run, dating back to early October, with another great all- round performance, as they made easy work of third-placed Norwich Union in the league. With only three league games remaining the league title could come down to a head to head fixture with Swaffham in April.

Broadland got off to the most spectacular of starts as Ryan Gallie took the kick off, the ball went through the hands of Adam Towfighi and Sean Howley before Mossie Abeysecera took a clean pass and broke through to score, for the home side to take the lead after 35 seconds.

Broadland did not let up as Stacey Ledgerwood found some space to break, offloading to Tom Weston who cut inside to score, with less than 5 minutes played Broadland were very much on the front foot. To Norwich Union’s credit they did come back at Broadland and a sustained period of pressure from the Norwich side was well defended. Broadland pushed hard at the line with pick and drives from Simon Coleman, Kieran Wilkes and Jimmy Dwyer with a ruck set close to the Norwich line. Scrum half Simon Ruddick snuck in from close range and before the half concluded Fly Half Stuart Murray broke to score.

Broadland took an early penalty at the start of the half, through the boot of Stuart Murray.

It was then some great effort from Phil Buckley and Chris Hewitt that got the ball in close for Ryan Gallie to crash over to score. Wing Ben Collings took a cross field kick and weaved his way in on the corner for a try and the Great Yarmouth side were in total control. Wing Jonno Stanhope-Smith had a great run down the wing, with Beckett and Morrison clearing out in the ruck, Scrum Half Ruddick spun the ball wide to Murray, Centre Abeysecera and Howley both split outwards pulling defenders with them, to allow fullback Tom Weston to take an inch perfect pass to score under the posts.

Broadland’s final score came from a lineout, Coleman took a clean ball, popped it to hooker Phil Buckley, Buckley passed long to Mason Jerome, who cut outside to brush off a tackle and score.

Norwich only had 10 players available, but to their credit were willing to fulfil the fixture and Broadland were in a position to loan them three players, which meant that, under league rules Broadland could only start with 14.

Norwich started brightly competing well up front in the loose however the Tigers were able to use the extra man to great effect and ran in a series of tries. One of the highlights was Luke Moorehouse taking clean ball from the restart and passing to Peter Gilbey who broke clear to score from his own half, with his first touch of the game after coming off the bench. An injury to a Norwich player saw Jamie Williams pull on the Norwich shirt.

Broadland changed things about in the second half changing players that had started for Norwich Liam Lovick, James Chaplin-Madden and Tom Kinnear-Swift, for Gav Thompson, Luke Moorehouse and Paul Able.

This changed things and Norwich were able to score four tries with Broadland player Jamie Williams scoring and Luke Moorehouse scoring for both sides.

Broadland were still able to put points on the board even though it was at a slower rate.

Gorleston Rangers Ospreys U7 played Ormesby Tigers in the semi-final of the trophy. Ospreys took control from the start. Billy was pulling the strings in midfield with plenty of quality forward passes and when needed some great tackling. Finlay was always strong going forward and Onur was his usual self, putting in a strong performance at the back, Arthur was very strong and his left foot was always a threat. Archie in goal was solid as usual as he always came to the rescue when called upon. Ormesby never gave in, A very good game saw Ospreys reach the final against Gorleston Rangers Eagles on April 26, Emerald Park at 11,15. A big thank you to Owen of Darby and Liffen for his sponsorship.